Mayor's Court, Thursday.
--The docket in this court to-day was a short one, though, owing to the number of witnesses examined, nearly two hours were consumed in its consideration:
The most important case disposed of was that against
Henry S. Arnold, charged with stealing a lot of chloroform, calomel, quinine, and other medicines, belonging to the Confederate Government.--
Arnold hails from
King George county, Virginia, is young and respectable in appearance, and has once been wounded in the service, but at the present time claims to be detailed for light duty.
The medicines which he is accused of stealing were discovered in the store of
Mr. C. M. Berrian, druggist, on the corner of Broad and Twenty-fifth streets; and that gentleman asserts that he bought them from the prisoner.
The first witness called was
Dr. Drew, chief of the laboratory department of the
Medical Purveyor's office of the
Confederate States.
Dr. Drew recognized the chloroform as being the property of the
Government from the peculiar manner in which it was put up — the mouth of the bottles being sealed with plaster of
Paris, a mode he had never seen adopted before.
He could not say that there had been any medicines stolen from his department, but was of the opinion that the robbery was committed at some hospital, and was some which had been issued by him.--A clerk under
Dr. Brew stated that, some weeks since, he went to the ore of
Mr. Berrian to see a young man, and wis, ere his attention was attracted to these from the peculiar manner in which they were put up. He examined the bottles and thought they were some which he had filled and sealed up at the
Purveyor's Department.
On inquiry, he was informed by
Mr. Berrian's clerk that the medicines had been bought from
Arnold, and was shown a memorandum written in the handwriting of
Mr. O. R. Morrison, an employee at the department, which memorandum had been wrapped around one of the glass stoppers which was tied to the neck of the bottle.--
Mr. Morrison was called, and identified the writing as his own; also thought the medicines were some which had been issued from the Medical Department.
This witness, as also did the one preceding him, thought he could identify a bottle of copailer from the peculiarity of the label; but upon calling to the stand
Mr. George W. Gary, the printer for the department, it was shown that he might easily be mistaken, as numbers of the same description could be printed at any printing establishment in the city.--
Mr. Berrian testified that
Arnold came to his store about a month since, in open day, and sold him the medicines which were claimed as belonging to the
Government.
At the time he bought them the prisoner informed him that he was from
King George county, and that the articles he had sold belonged to a blockade-runner from that county, who had recently brought them from
Baltimore.
Having frequently bought medicines put up in similar bottles, and in precisely the same style, both before the war and since, he felt no hesitation in buying them.
As to there being anything unusual or exclusive in the manner of sealing the chloroform bottles, that was not the case, for he had often bought it put up in the same style.--An expert, who had been in the apothecary business for upwards of forty years, stated that he had never seen chloroform bottles sealed with plaster before the war, nor had he known it to be put up in that style since the war at any other establishment but the
Medical Purveyor's Department.--The ease was thereupon sent on for examination before the Hustings Court, and the prisoner admitted to bad in the sum of five hundred dollars for his appearance.
Mary E. Faceman, a free negro, was charged with stealing a dress, valued at three hundred dollars, from
Mary Shehan.
After a short examination of one of the witnesses, it turned out that the offence was committed in
Henrico county, whereupon the
Mayor refused to have anything further to do with the case, and referred the parties to a county magistrate.
Winston, slave of
Colonel G. W. Richardson, made, his appearance to answer the charge of having a lot of clothing supposed to have been stolen.
The mother of the accused was produced as a witness, and gave an account of the clothing in question, clearly exculpating the prisoner from any guilt, and the case was therefore dismissed.
